I saw an extended version of this during the Oscar broadcast. I was very surprised it got on primetime and during such a time of the biggest audience for ABC.

Ads are fine, but most people can know couples like this through a church or school or any number of community gatherings. These men have FIVE children, after all. Children have friends and so on.

One would think this is enough for a community to know the gay folks within it...it's unfortunate and it's GAY people who have to strain themselves at meeting people in ordinary circumstances.

Which makes the accusation 'shoving it down our throats', as empty one as there is.
When the opposition makes you chase them, why do they bitch about having to run?

In the last campaign, Equality California shoved ALL gay folks and their children into the deepest darkest closet they could find, never to be seen or heard from. Given that equality of obscurity, it's interesting now to watch which gay folks they are letting out of that closet.

I think they are right to focus on the kids -- as risky as that seems at first blush, but they don't go far enough. The instinct last time was to run from the issue the minute someone suggested that we wanted to "teach homosexuality" in the schools.

NO WE DON'T, NO WE DON'T. NO WE DON'T came the cries of incredulity from the Super of Public Ed. and the he good Senator from San francisco.

NO we DON'T ??? The hell we don't !!!

How many Lawrence Kings, Carl Joseph Hoover Walkers, and Jaheem Herreras have to die before we're prepared to teach the truth.

This movement will never get anywhere until such time as we find the spine to actually speak OUR truth and let the chips fall where they may. We aren't responsible for the lies of our opponents and should never base our primary messaging on their lies. Polling and focus groups can never ever substitute for common sense and the vigorous defense of our famllies and our children's interests and safety.

When we're prepared tp show the world who we really are as LGBT communiTIES [all of us rather than just the tame and domesticated ones] and to speak our multiple thruthS with courage and conviction maybe the public will believe us.. Until then we're lying just as surely as our opponents.

With all due respect to the family portrayed, this ad is terrible. It's bland, pandering, insecure and engenders nothing but doubt.

People don't change when they are comfortable. People change when they are uncomfortable. And it's our job to make them uncomfortable with the status quo and its homophobic slaughter of the innocents. If we won't defend our children with our very lives, then we don't deserve them.

Back to the drawing board guys.

pastor scott

These ads always confuse me. Is this a real family, or are they paid actors?

I'm clearly not the ad's target audience, but I really like it. I don't think it's targeted toward church goers who use the word "faggot." I think it's targeted toward moveable middle voters, who generally are ok with gay couples not facing outright discrimination, but aren't entirely comfortable with the word "marriage."

And I'm glad that the new marriage campaign in CA is focusing on married couples, their families and their stories. It is, as Marc Solomon says, "our secret weapon."